The waltz was dwindling away, and with a supreme effort he let her go. They...

The waltz was dwindling away, and with a supreme effort he let her go. They talked through the crowd together, smiling politely at people who intercepted them without the slightest idea of anything that was said. When they neared the Townsendes' group Ian delayed her with a touch of his hand. "There's something I've wanted to tell you," he said. Scrupulously keeping up appearances, he reached out to take a drink from a tray being passed by a servant, using that to cover their having stopped. "I would have told you before, but until now you would have questioned my motives and not believed me."
Elizabeth nodded graciously to a woman who greeted her, then she slowly reached for the glass, listening to him as he quietly said, "I never told your brother I didn't want to wed you."
Her hand stayed, then she took the glass from him and walked beside him as they made their slowest possible way back to their friends. "Thank you," she said softly, pausing to sip from her glass in another delaying tactic.
"There's one more thing," he added irritably.
"What's that?" she asked.
"I hate this damn ball. I'd give half what I own to be anywhere else with you."
To his surprise, his thrifty fiancé nodded complete agreement. "So would I."
"Half?" he chided, grinning at her in complete defiance of the rules of propriety. "Really?"
"Well-at least a forth," she amended helplessly, giving him her hand for the obligatory kiss as she reached for her skirts, preparing to curtsy. "Don't you curtsy to me," he warned in a laughing underbreath, kissing her gloved fingers. "Everywhere I go women are falling to the floor like collapsing rigging on a ship."
Elizabeth's shoulders shook with mirth as she disobediently sank into a deep throne-room curtsy that was a miracle of grace and exaggeration. Above her she heard his throaty chuckle. In an utter turnabout of his earlier feelings, Ian suddenly decided this ball was immensely enjoyable.